Chicago Creates Incentives for Transit Oriented Developments Along Bus Routes

The city of Chicago's transit oriented development (TOD) program will expand to include South Side and West Side neighborhoods around bus lines. In TOD areas in Chicago, zoning regulations wave some of the restrictions around parking allocations and number of units. "One goal of transit-oriented development is to increase housing near CTA and Metra stations so that people walk and use public transportation more frequently. In this most recent expansion of the policy, Chicago would be the first city to implement transit-oriented development around bus lines, according to the mayor’s office," Sara Freund explains for Curbed Chicago.

"The two bus corridors were selected by the city due to high ridership—No. 66 Chicago Avenue line saw 6.9 million riders in 2017 and No. 79 79th Street route had 7.8 million riders in the same year," Freund reports. Where, exactly, on those lines the TODs will fall has yet to be determined.